COLLISION AT SEA

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11168, 25 March 1922, Page 7

COLLISION AT SEA

SUBMARINE SUNY ENTIRE BRITISH CREW GO DUWX. TRAGEDY DURING MANOEUVRES Bv Telegraph.—Press Asm.-CopvrftfiS. Australian and N.Z. Cable Asocial ion. i."\!U;N. Ate. -A. A destroyer with snbiiiarir.o 842 during manui .r. ivs ml ( /• . l’lie submarine n: > I*. v. u',\ ..,i hands. The H 42 rose t:> i t.vrmv yanls Lom iln- v-.-,.,, w . which was steaming at t’.v,lUy-sr-.n :i knots. The oubinnih.c w a.- tu, . ; halves. ine Versatile stood by far hours, but no sign of survivors was sta. FURTHER DETAILS SUBMARINE CUT THROUC®, CREW CAUGHT IN A THAR. {Received March 21, 7.45 p.m.> LONDON*, March 24. Submarine HL2 was riting to the sur» face at the manoeuvres u i.ou .she w;u telescoped Ly\ tho Versatile, which u-s going at itwcnty-icven knots. The submarine came to the surface within twenty <grnrd* of the destroyer, so the collision was inevitable, l.** destroyer cutting right through th_* tiny vo-sel. The Versatile stood by for souo hours, hut the hope'of any rescue teas the smallest. Water rushed in and the submarine instantly sank in hair a mil© of water. All must have been drowned within two or three minutes without a chanco of escaping. The Versatile was not taking part in tSie manoeuvres, but was under orders to return to England, and was on her way when, the accident happened. Her bows were so damugt 1 that she was towed to Gibraltar stern foremost, with two compartments flooded.

Thtf commander of the submarine, LieuU&nant Sealey, had. a distinguished war record, especially in the Baltic. Lieutenant Price, second in command, won the D.S.O. as a niid<kipman for heroic service in the Dardanelles.

Thirty-three of the crew belonged to Portsmouth, where they spent their Christmas leave. Pathetic scenes were witnessed at the dockyard gates where mothers and wives waited ail i;ighc long, hoping for details or even news of ihe It is not certain that all the crew wtre on board, but some state that as many as forty died, afe extra men were on board tor training.

The accident follows cio.>e noon Ho narrow escape of the sister-ship, H 24. The destroyer belonged to tlie san’O flotilla as ihe Versatile.

H 42 was damaged in a collision in 1019. and was not worth salving. Most of the H class were built in Canada, during the war. The navy bae lost ten submarines in peace-time and fortv-soven in war-time.

The King sent a message to the commander of the Atlantic Fleet ns follows: “I was greatly shocked to hear of the disaster. I wish the deep sympathy of myself and the Queen to be conveyed to tlie families of the raisodng.”

In the House of Commons it was officially stated that- H 42 earn© to tho surface thirty or fort3* yards from tho Versatile, which was steaming at twenty knots. There was no spare crow on the submarine.

During the exereoises by the Atlantic fleets off Majorca in February, the destroyer Vancouver collided w : ith submarine 524. The latter had her conning tower periscopes shorn off. There was no loss of life.